William walker



W. WALKER Machine for Pressing o'r Greasing Ruffled Fabrics.

Patented Mar. 16

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM WALKER, or BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO MIL s. LEv E NEW YORK, N. Y.

MACHINE FOR PRESSING OR CREASING RUFFLED FABRICS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 225,667, dated March16, 1880.

Application filed August 11, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM WALKER, of thecity of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Pressing orGreasing and Applying Bands to Fluted, Grimped, Plaited, or otherRuffled Fabrics; and I do hereby declare that the following is adescription of the same, reference be :0 ing had to the accompanyingdrawings.

The machine to which thisinvention relates is more especially designedfor pressing down the flutes of fluted or ruffled fabrics on a line orbetween lines parallel with the edges of the fabric and applying a bandthereto.

My invention consists in a novel combination of band supports and guideswith pressure-rollers; also, in a novel combination of an automaticcutter with such pressure-rollers and band-supports.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a machine with my improvements,taken parallel with the direction in which the fabric runs through themachine in the planes indicated 2 5 by the lines mac of Fig. 2, which isa front elevation of the machine with the table in section. Fig. 3 is alongitudinal sectional diagram of the fluted fabric and the bands on alarger scale than Figs. 1 and 2, illustrating the act of pressing downthe flutes. Fig.4 is a face View of the fabric.

B is the main framing of the machine. A is the main shaft, to which thepower to drive the machine may be imparted in any well known or suitablemanner. This shaft works in fixed bearings and carries the lower roller,0, of the pair 0 O, the upper one of which is fast upon a shaft, A,which is arranged in bearings, to which are applied springs a, for thepurposeof pressing the roller 0 downward and producing the necessarypressure on the fabric passing between them. These rollers may be heatedby gas or other suitable means. Their shafts A A may be geared together,or the roller 0 may be driven by the friction of the fabric passedbetween it and the roller O.

D D are converging band-supports, arranged in front of the rollers O C.These supports 50 consist of plates or blocks of a width not less thanthe width of the bands ff, which are to be applied to the fabric, andtheir operatingfaces at d, which converge toward the opening between therollers and come very near to each other and to the rollers, may beeitherstraight or slightly curved. The faces are shown in Fig. l asstraight for the greater portion of their length from the ends next therollers, but having their front parts curved. The said band-supports arefirmly and rigidly secured to the ma- 6o chine. They are represented assecured. by means of screws or screw-bolts b b to lugs provided withtransverse bars 0 c, forming parts of the framing of the machinebutslots are provided in them to permit of their adjustment nearertogether or farther apart on the said screws or screw-bolts beingslackened, when the degree or angle of convergence of the said supportsmay be changed, if desired. Each of the said supports has secured to orprovided on it a guide, e, for the band f which it is to support,theguide on the upper support, D, being on the under side thereof, and theguide on the under support, D, being on the upper side thereof.

Just below the face of the lower band-support, D, is a table, E, for thesupport of the ruffle g on opposite sides of the band-supports D D, andoutside of the portion to which the bands ff are to be applied. Thelower bandsupport, D, is arranged within a slot, h, provided in the saidtable, as shown in Fig. 2.

The bands may be supplied to the machine from reels, suitably supportedand. arranged, and the ruffle may be supplied from a basket on thefloor, or from any other convenient means of containing it in sufficientlength.

The operation of creasing by this machine is as follows: The ends of thetwo bands ff are passed through the guides e e, and thence between thesupports D D and the pressurerollers O O, and the end of the ruffle tobe creased is laid upon the table E and pushed in between the bands asfar as possible toward the pressure-rollers. The machine being set 5 inmotion, the bands and the ruffle together are drawn between theband-supports D D and the pressure-rollers, and as the bands and theruffle pass together between the converging faces of the supports D D,which form an open and unobstructed taper throat or passage, the flutesof the rufiie are gradually pressed or creased and flattened on the lineof the pressure or crease until they arrive between thepressure-rollers, which complete the pressing and flattening.

The bands moving with the ruffle prevent the'flutes from falling orbeing pressed over altogether forward or backward, and insure theirbeing so crushed as to fall equally in both directions, as shown in thediagram, Fig. 3, where the original rounded form of the flutes, as thefabric 9 enters the machine, is shown by a light line, and the gradualand regular change to the flat form is illustrated by a stronger line.

In this operation the perfect action of the bands is insured by theconverging supports D D, which are in fact the means of breaking downand flattening the flutes, the bands only serving to protect the flutesfrom being broken down or thrown over all in one direction, andafterward serving to retain the crease in its flat condition.

To provide for sticking the bands f f on the ruffle, they may, beforeentering the machine, be moistened 'in any suitable manner with starch,gum, or other adhesive material, though, in most cases, the material ofwhich the ruffle and band are composed contains so much starch ordressing that the band, being simply moistened with water, will becaused, by the pressure of the rollers O C, to adhere to the ruffle.

Behind the rollers O 0 there is arranged, in suitable bearings on theframing B, a shaft F,

on which is secured a circular disk-cutter, G, occupying such a positionthat the cuttingedge of the disk will be opposite to the crease of thepressed ruffle, and in close proximity or contact with the periphery ofthe roller 0, provision being made for its adjustment up to the saidroller by set-screws i, applied to the boxes of the shaft F, as shown inFig. 1. The fabrio passing between the roller 0 and cutter G will becarried forward by the movement of the said roller, and will be cut bythe rotary movement of the cutter derived from the said roller by thecontaetvof the said cutter with the fabric or with the said roller.

In case it should be desired to apply a band to the upper surfaceonly ofthe fabric, the lower band-support, D, may be dispensed with, and thetable may be made without the slot shown as provided for said support.

I claim-- 1. The combination, with the pressure-rollers and upper-andlower band-supports converging toward the opening between the saidrollers, of a band-guide on the under face of the upper band-support anda band-guide on the upper face of the lower band-support, substantiallyas and for the purpose specified.

2. The automatic rotary diskeutter G, in combination with thepressure-rolls O O and the converging band-supports D D, substantiallyas and for the purpose herein described.

WM. WALKER.

Witnesses FREDK. HAYNES, T. J. KEANE.

